The AHAA Design in Relation to the Add Health Waves

Using the AHAA data requires attention to the temporal order of survey administration relative to the academic year a course that appeared on the transcript was actually taken by a the student. Figure 1, below, illustrates these temporally ordered relationships for each Add Health grade level cohort. Add Health sampled approximately equal numbers of students in each of six grade levels (7-12). Each of these grade level cohorts are identified in the far left column, and the academic years in which each cohort is likely to be enrolled in high school are identified in each row with the designation of Year 1 - Year 4 (with Year 1 referring to the first year of high school, and so forth). The numbering system of Years 1-4 refers to the organization of the AHAA transcript-based constructed variables. The shaded cells in Figure 1 represent academic years in which a survey was administered. Notice that Add Health sample members who entered the study as 7th graders in the 1994-1995 academic year generally began high school coursework after the administration of the Wave II survey. In contrast, students who entered the study as a high school senior in the 1994-1995 academic year generally completed most, but not all of their high school coursework before they responded to the In-School survey.